Death at Sea-World by David Kirby
Hi everybody, sorry it has taken me so long to get this book review out. I have been fighting with myself on whether or not I want to start doing book reviews on YouTube, and well I decided to take a leap of faith and start doing that. Anyway lets get on to the review. And I have to be honest, this might be the hardest review I have ever done.
Death at SeaWorld by David Kirby is a non-fiction book about killer whales in captivity. And more specifically, how their well being is affected by being captive. The book has a gripping hook on the cover which states: "SHAMU and THE DARK SIDE of KILLER WHALES IN CAPTIVITY" which sets the tone of this book. The book starts off setting the scene of the tragic day in Feburary of 2010 when senior SeaWorld orca trainer Dawn Brancheau is killed by Tillikum, a 12,000 pound killer whale. But that isn't where the book begins.
The author goes back into the history of the capture of these animals starting from when they were taken from Pacific waters off the coast of Washington and Canadian waters, to the Icelandic waters. Babies are separated from their mothers and brought to aquariums to be put on display. The book also talks about how short the life span of these animals were in captivity as opposed to being in the wild. The book was full of facts of how captivity affects the orca and how they differ from being in the wild. The book also includes, Naomi Rose who is a marine biologist specializing in marine mammals and killer whales. While I did feel that the book at times followed too closely with the personal lives of particular people, Naomi Rose and others were important voices against orcas in captivity. The book also talked about four former Sea World killer whale trainers: Jeff Ventry, John Jett, Samantha Burg and Carol Ray. The author did use stories from Ventry and Jett more than the other two though.
In the end, I loved this book, but it was incredibly one sided. But that didn't sway my opinion on way or the other. In fact it made me want to go out and research more about these mammals. The book had facts, and facts that you can easily check out for yourself. It made my mind think which is what I wanted from this book. But it was a heavy read. It took me a while to get though it because of all of the facts I didn't want to skim through any of the sections.
Now I just want to say quickly that the book did point a finger, and it was towards companies that force these animals to do tricks for profits, but I never felt disgust towards the people who worked with these animals. In the end I had a new found respect for the trainers whom dedicate their lives because they truly believe in something. But that doesn't make me want to run to a SeaWorld or Shedd Aquarium anytime soon.
Rating:
5 out of 5 (I did debate on giving it a 4.5 because it is one-sided but in the end I loved the book)
On Deck:
Keeper of the Crystal Spring by Naomi and Deborah Baltuck
Ten Thousand Lovers by Edeet Ravel
Desperate Tigress by Jade Lee
Joy of Funerals by Alix Strauss
Here are some links and titles to some interesting things I have read about or watched about killer whales.
Killer in the Pool
Blood in the Water
If you're not a big book person check out the documentary Blackfish.
Here's some titles of some documentaries that I thought were interesting:
Lolita Slave to Entertainment
The Free Willy Story: Keiko's Journey Home
Frontline: A Whale of a Business